Peterborough Museum and Archives

The Peterborough Museum and Archives (formally known as the Peterborough Centennial Museum) originated from the need in the city for a new museum. The Peterborough District Historical and Art Museum Foundation was established in 1961 to fund and establish a new museum and safeguard remnants of the Victoria Museum collection. Originally Victoria Museum grew out of the Peterborough Historical Society's efforts to preserve the past. The museum had a number of cases of birds and animals, Indigenous curios, old documents, antique firearms, an old canoe and displays of minerals. T.A.S. Hay became the first curator when the Victoria Museum moved from Inverlea Park to the top floor of the new library building on April 23, 1912. G.H. Clarke became the next curator as Hay died in 1917 and at the same time the Library Board took over stewardship of the museum. By the 1950's much of the museum's collection had been dispersed to other sources in the Peterborough area. The Historical Society re-established itself and the museum became renewed with display cases on the upper floor and in the basement of the library. On November 19, 1966 the Historical Society transferred ownership of the Victoria Museum collection to the Peterborough District Historical and Art Museum Foundation since the society was not incorporated. Eventually the artifacts which were part of the Victoria Museum's collections and later under library stewardship came to be housed in the Peterborough Museum and Archives. On October 28, 1967 the Peterborough Museum and Archives was officially opened on Armour Hill and the collections of the Victoria Museum became a part of the Peterborough Museum's collections. (Taken from: Doherty, Ken "Preserving Peterborough's Past: 150 Years of Museums and History." Occasional Paper 16. Peterborough Historical Society, November 1995.)